On Napster Hearings

The RIAA and Napster hearings about the preliminary injunction against Napster were today with both sides providing their argumens to the three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals. The judges have no deadline to give a verdict, so it could happen this week or next month. One interesting point is that one of the judges held a flea market operator responsible for pirated music that was being sold at its facility in 1996. Not too different from the Napster situation. The main Napster arguments focused on the fact that the RIAA wasn't willing to discuss settlement.

Napster chief executive Hank Barry says the company has offered several different financial and business proposals to the individual labels. The company has been working on business models that involve a subscription service, in which Napster users would pay a small monthly fee for access to much or all of the service. Assuming this fee was just $4.95 a month, Napster could potentially pay record companies close to $500 million in 2001, Barry says. But the record companies haven't bit. They've cordially listened to the ideas but haven't gone so far as to offer counterproposals, Barry says. "It's been basically me negotiating against me," he said. "I don't think this is about money. I think this is about control."